Measurement is also influenced by the country you live in.
If we look at North America and Europe, we will find subtle differences in how the same concept is measured in each place. And we are not referring to the unit of measurement (miles or kilometers), but to such everyday facts as measuring car consumption and printer cartridge yield. Do you want to know more…?
Let’s start with a curiosity of no consequence: the consumption indicator that cars have. Until recently, this data was digested by the driver more as a curiosity than a necessity. But with the advent of electric vehicles (with less autonomy and requiring recharging), they have learned to use it frequently: necessity wins out over curiosity.
However, here, as in so many other things, differences in use are evident. While in Europe the most common indicator is “liters/km traveled” or “kWh per km traveled”, in North America they use “miles/liter” or “miles per kWh”, i.e. the same indicator inverted. But, in the end, they are talking about the same thing: what you are getting out of a tank of gasoline or charged batteries.
In the world of printing, something similar happens. Printer consumption is a critical element for all dealers with MPS (Managed Print Services) contracts.
We would all agree that the cartridge should be shipped before the printer stops, i.e. when the level is low, but that is as far as the consensus goes: in North America, for the most part, the time of shipment is measured by the percentage of charge remaining in the cartridge, while in Europe it is measured by the number of days the consumable is still capable of printing. Which is the most appropriate indicator?
Answering this question requires understanding the consequences of one or the other gauge: with 20% toner level in 2 machines of the same model, you can print for 2 months on one, and 2 days on the other. In other words, how long that 20% lasts depends on the user’s printing patterns, which the distributor will never be able to control.
If in both cases the toner is shipped at the same time, we will have the following:
– In the first printer, in 60% of the cases, the user will install it as soon as he receives it (with a waste of about 20% of the cartridge); in 8% of the cases, the cartridge will be misplaced (the user no longer remembers where he kept it); only in 32% of the cases, the user will wait and install it when the other one is exhausted.
– In the case of the second printer to which the cartridge is shipped 2 days in advance, any deviation from the ideal process will mean that the printer will stop, and as a consequence, the customer will complain.
If cartridge shipments are made on the basis of the days of use remaining on each cartridge, the distributor will be controlling the timing, ensuring that the customer is never left idle without printing. On the other hand, it will be acting preventively against users who install the cartridges as soon as they receive them, as well as against forgetful customers who lose them.
For both reasons, the vast majority of resellers using Nubeprint manage their shipments using Nubeprint’s unique “days remaining” thresholds, a threshold that can be adjusted from the “Status” app.
